Fergie will not use 7-1 Roma victory to inspire United

Sir Alex Ferguson will not be dredging up the memory of Manchester United's seven-goal destruction of Roma three years ago to inspire his team to victory against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.

That astounding 7-1 success remains the only time United have successfully overturned a first-leg deficit since the Champions League was launched in 1992. The first-leg scoreline then was 2-1 too, so there are obvious parallels for Ferguson to draw.

But the United boss cannot see any point in using it as a motivational tool and said: "I haven't thought about the Roma game. They were probably equal to what Bayern are now in terms of ability and it was one of those performance you hope you could see every week. But you don't."

He added: "It was a once-in-a-lifetime European performance. The scoreline suggests that.

"The thing is to make sure the performance level is good. That makes a difference to the supporters and the players' belief and confidence. From there we can start gathering ourselves again."

A tough task will be made even harder if Wayne Rooney is not available to play some part.

The United teamsheet will be eagerly awaited an hour before kick-off given the slightly mixed message on Rooney that Ferguson delivered in his pre-match press conference.

Although the United boss claimed last Friday that the 34-goal striker would be missing for between two and four weeks with the ankle injury he suffered in the last minute of the first-leg defeat to Bayern last Tuesday, rumours surfaced pretty quickly that Rooney could be in action far quicker than that.

Ferguson did at first reject the notion of an appearance in the return outright, insisting Rooney had "no chance" of being involved.

However, within seconds, Ferguson was tempering his words slightly, saying he didn't "think" Rooney would be on the bench, before adding that he expected the 24-year-old to try and change his mind.

Copyright (c) PA Sport 2009, All Rights Reserved.

Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: http://gms.to/writeforgms

Report author of article

DISCLAIMER

This article has been written by a member of the GiveMeSport Writing Academy and does not represent the views of
GiveMeSport.com or SportsNewMedia. The views and opinions expressed are solely that of the author credited at the top of this article.
GiveMeSport.com and SportsNewMedia do not take any responsibility for the content of its contributors.

Want more content like this?

Like our GiveMeSport Facebook Page and you will get this directly to you.